The King of Fighters 2001 Review

Arcade-game developer SNK officially went out of business in 2001, but that hasn't seemed to slow down what is apparently a new generation of games for the company's NeoGeo arcade hardware. One of the last projects the company was working on was The King of Fighters 2001, the latest edition in SNK's annual fighting game series, along with a new developer, Eolith. And while certain aspects of KOF 2001 may seem very different from previous games, spend some time with it and you'll eventually realize that it's one of the deepest, most technical 2D fighting games ever made.

It's no secret that SNK's NeoGeo hardware is old. Over 10 years old. That's why its games still use low-resolution, hand-drawn sprites for its characters, rather than switching to a 3D engine or at least using high-frame-rate, high-resolution graphics. The age of the NeoGeo hardware seems painfully obvious when you look at KOF 2001's shoddy background stages, which look generic at best and ugly and pixelated at worst. But over the years, SNK's artists have perfected a bunch of visual tricks to help add detail to their characters and give them lots of personality. And KOF 2001's characters have lots of personality--as much as you'd expect from SNK, a company with a history of making some of the most distinctive and memorable 2D fighting game characters ever. You'll see it in your character's win poses and taunts and in other extra animations. It's true (and unfortunate) that KOF 2001 reuses a lot of old character animation from previous games, so that some characters--especially the newest ones--look better than others. But most characters have at least some new animations, win poses, and special attacks--more than enough to make each one more interesting than they were in the previous game, KOF 2000.

Another KOF tradition is good voice acting; KOF 2001's voice work is about as good as it was in 2000. Sullen, moody characters like Iori and Kyo snarl and sneer appropriately, while upbeat, smart-mouthed characters like Ramon and Joe hurl insults at their opponents and laugh in their faces. KOF 2001's sound effects are pretty much adequate; they resemble those from previous years, which is just fine. Quick jabs sound like quick jabs, strong punches sound like strong punches, and KOF's infamous suite of flashy explosions and fiery bursts of flame sound just like you'd expect them to. Unfortunately, KOF 2001's music isn't as good. From the series' beginning in 1994, its soundtracks were eclectic mixes of funk, jazz, '80s-style guitar rock, and heavy metal, though in later years, the soundtracks have degenerated into generic techno music. KOF's music is at an all-time low in 2001. Though it tries to hold to a theme of mostly bass and percussion, it all ends up being the same kind of bland, forgettable techno music you've heard about a zillion times in every other video game with a techno soundtrack.

Fortunately, if you play KOF 2001, you'll probably ignore the game's awful background stages and mediocre music, because you'll be too busy fighting it out to notice anything else. KOF 2001 has a roster of 40 different playable characters, but they're all remarkably well balanced; you can pit just about any of them against any other and have a fair fight. And every character has enough special attacks and strategies to be interesting--unlike in KOF 2000 and KOF '99, which simply dumbed down a lot of characters to favor the new striker system. Strikers--extra characters that you call in from offscreen to do a single attack or two--are still in KOF 2001, but they're much more balanced than in previous games and are actually completely optional in 2001. Basically, the game gives you four character slots, and you can choose as many playable characters as you want--four playable characters with no strikers, two playable characters and two strikers, and so on. If you don't pick any strikers, you characters will do less damage and won't be able to perform their most powerful super attacks; if you pick one or more strikers, you'll be able to do more damage and access super attacks, but you'll have fewer playable characters on your team. It's a system that resembles Capcom vs. SNK 2's ratio system, but it's much more balanced.

But that isn't all. KOF 2001 also has super cancel attacks, which let you quickly cancel a special attack and turn it into a super attack, as in Street Fighter EX and Street Fighter III. 2001 also has "wire attacks," which bounce your opponent off the corner of the screen and let you quickly hit your opponent with a follow-up attack, like the wall juggles in Guilty Gear X. You'll find plenty of skills to master in KOF 2001 without getting into the specifics of each of your favorite characters, though you'll definitely want to do that too, especially with some of the new characters in the game. For instance, the newcomer Mei Lee is a martial artist with two completely distinct fighting stances that you can switch between in an instant, while another newcomer, Angel, is a completely original and completely bizarre character with a huge set of special attacks that are keyed off of a single kick. And if you're playing the game at your arcade, you should actually be able to play some decent practice rounds in a single-player game, since the computer opponents generally aren't too tough, at least until you get to the end. The final battle with KOF 2001's boss character is probably the most insanely difficult and frustrating fight in the entire series. But if you're lucky enough to play KOF 2001 at an arcade with some actual competition, you'll find that the game holds up extremely well in head-to-head play.

Most King of Fighters diehards will tell you that '98 was the best game in the series because of its excellent character balance and its huge character roster (38 characters, plus 12 "alternate" versions of some characters) of very deep, interesting characters. KOF 2001 doesn't have the sort of flat-out character-against-character matchups that '98 did, because of its strikers and its varying team sizes, but it's still a great game in its own right. Its different options, striker and wire attacks, and sizeable character roster will let you play KOF 2001 for a good long time before you tire of it--and they also help make KOF 2001 one of the deepest 2D fighting games ever.

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Review

2D fighting games may not be as popular as they used to be, but Arc System Works' Guilty Gear series has continued to chug along over the years. The newest edition in the series is Guilty Gear XX Accent Core, and just in case the title didn't make it obvious, this is the latest edition in a long-running series with a lot of different features that have evolved over time. Even so, casual fighting-game fans should be able to get into the game rather easily. It isn't hard to get started dishing out big, long combination attacks by hammering away on various buttons. But hardcore Guilty Gear fans will get the most out of the new game because it has a few new features that make higher-level play a bit more interesting. Just make sure you have either a Classic or GameCube controller handy, because even though the game supports the Wii Remote with Nunchuk attachment, it's best played on a more traditional controller.

Like with many other games of this sort, this 2D fighting game offers one-on-one matchups between characters inspired by Japanese anime cartoon designs who heroically shout out the names of their mighty fighting techniques in battle. In the Guilty Gear series, you can attack your opponent with a combination of punches, kicks, and two different types of "slashing" attacks (most characters carry a weapon or some equivalent) by stringing together punches, kicks, and slashes with other types of attacks on the ground, and also in the air as part of extended "juggle" attacks. But the game's character designs are clearly intended to be as bizarre as possible. Among the roster, you'll find a masked man who wields a pool cue as a weapon; a young girl whose weapon is a gigantic talking key that's bigger than she is; and a hunched-over zombie who won't stop talking to himself. Technically, none of the game's default characters is all-new, but several characters have been updated and fine-tuned slightly for balance purposes. Pretty much all of the game's characters seem strong enough to compete against each other.

As any fighting game sequel should, Accent Core tweaks some of the characters' moves and the overall game balance. It also adds some higher-level features that advanced players will probably appreciate most. The game now includes "force break" attacks, which are powered-up versions of most characters' special techniques that can be used to enhance your offense and your combination attacks. It also adds new defensive options, such as the ability to escape from standard throw grapples. You can also use a new type of defense, the "slash back," which, when properly timed, will let your character come out of his or her defending animation much more quickly and give you more of an opportunity to counterattack. For the most part, the series has always been pretty fast-paced and has emphasized offense over defense. This is still the case in Accent Core, which offers numerous ways to squash cowardly opponents who sit and hide in the corner. The game also includes a running penalty system that actually makes cowering players less powerful over the course of a fighting round. The way to victory in Guilty Gear is still usually through relentlessly aggressive play, but Accent Core's new gameplay additions seem to add a bit more give-and-take to matches, assuming your fingers are fast enough to make use of them. Either way, you'll probably have trouble making a go of it using the Wii Remote controller. Guilty Gear's speed and pacing more or less require you to quickly use a gamepad and press four different buttons at any given time, sometimes in different combinations. This is very challenging, to say the least, on a Wii Remote controller. The experience is much better with a classic or GameCube controller because the gamepad and four face buttons make the game much more manageable.

Otherwise, the game has a handful of other extras that Guilty Gear fans will appreciate, such as the ability to unlock original versions of the game's characters (with their original abilities and attacks) from the previous Guilty Gear and Guilty Gear XX games. It also includes an art gallery, a single-player arcade mode, a training mode, and two different single-player survival modes, standard and "Medal of Millionaire," the latter of which occasionally rewards successful attacks with bonus items and health-replenishing pickups. Medal of Millionaire is perhaps a bit easier to go through because of the pickups, but all this stuff is pretty straightforward single-player content you'd expect from a modern console fighting game. As with pretty much any fighting game, Accent Core is at its best when played competitively against real people.

Accent Core also offers a new coat of paint with new backgrounds to fight on and new voice-overs for its characters. The backgrounds themselves look just fine; they're colorful and interesting, but they aren't so cluttered or busy that they distract you from the action. The new sound samples and backgrounds add some welcome new window dressing, though Accent Core, like the other games in the series, is still all about keeping an eye on your character and your opponent during the fight. Accent Core reuses the same 2D sprites for its characters, as well as many of the special effects, that have appeared in other games. The characters are still very colorful and still very distinctively weird, and though some are better-animated than others, Accent Core looks pretty good.

These days, you really don't have many choices when it comes to new 2D fighting games for your home consoles, but Guilty Gear XX Accent Core should offer enough action and variety for most fans of this sort of game. If you're new to the series, you may be taken aback by just how strange its characters are, as well as by the twitchy, fast-paced gameplay dominated by long strings of combination attacks. Nevertheless, you'll get used to it quickly enough. If you're a Guilty Gear veteran, you'll probably find enough to like about Accent Core to make it worth your while, too.

Marvel vs. Capcom Review

OK, let's bypass the intro to this review and make one thing perfectly clear. The gameplay score in this review is based on playing the game with Sega's arcade-style joystick, which is sold by Agetec here in the States. If this joystick didn't exist, and the only option was the standard Dreamcast controller, it's likely the gameplay would have gotten a lower score.

Marvel vs. Capcom is the latest incarnation of Capcom's Street Fighter vs. series. But here, instead of limiting the characters to X-Men or Street Fighters, Capcom has taken characters from all over the Marvel and Capcom universes. Marvel is represented by new additions like Venom and Onslaught, as well as fighting-game veterans like Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. Capcom's lineup includes Street Fighters Ryu, Chun Li, and Zangief, but also include non-fighting game characters like Captain Commando, Strider Hiryu, and Mega Man. The result is an ultimate (albeit a bit condensed) lineup of fighters from all over the place. This cross section of comic book heroes and video-game characters gives the game a truly new and diverse feel, even if the gameplay hasn't changed too much since the last Capcom vs. fighting game, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.

The matches are still fought in typical tag-team fashion. You can swap between your two fighters at any time, letting one hop out and regain a little life. There are also team-up attacks, where both fighters hop out and do a super move together, resulting in big damage if the attack connects. New to Marvel vs. Capcom are helper attacks. After picking your two fighters, you're given a random helper character, whom you can call out for a quick attack a few times during the match with a quick press of both medium attack buttons. The helper characters are also taken from various places in the worlds of Marvel and Capcom. Some of the more notable characters include Marvel characters like Jubilee, Cyclops, and Colossus, while Capcom's helpers include Arthur from Ghosts N' Goblins, the Unknown Soldier from Forgotten Worlds, and Devilot of Cyberbots and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo fame. There is also a new team-up attack, which behaves a bit like Street Fighter Alpha 2's custom combos. When you execute the attack (which takes all three levels of your super meter), your backup character hops out, and you control both your characters at the same time. You have an infinite super meter while you're double teaming your opponent, so you can simply start the frenzy, then bust off supers as fast as you possibly can. There are also little differences in some of the returning characters. For instance, Ken and Akuma aren't in the game. Instead, you pick Ryu and change into a Ken or Akuma "mode," which changes the color of Ryu's suit and gives him all the moves of the character he's emulating. Similarly, Zangief can change into a robot version of himself, which can breathe fire, yet can't block.The game has all the modes you've come to expect from a Capcom fighter, including the standard arcade, versus, survival, and training modes. However, there's one mode that really sticks out as being innovative in a "hey, why didn't they think of that sooner" sort of way. The cross-fever mode is a four-player mode that lets players one and three fight against players two and four. So when you tag out to your other fighter, your teammate takes control of the fight. This also comes into play during the custom combo-style attack, because each character is controlled by a different person.

Graphically, Marvel vs. Capcom looks terrific and once and for all proves that the Dreamcast can definitely do justice to 2D games. Even when all four characters are onscreen, filling the arena with projectiles while the background goes crazy, the game doesn't slow down a bit. The utter lack of load times (save for a short load before fighting Onslaught's second form) keeps the game moving along at a nice, brisk pace. The soundtrack, which comprises music from all sorts of different Capcom games (the Strider theme song, Mega Man music, and so on) is unmatched. The game's sound effects are also crystal clear and extremely well done. The copious use of stereo separation helps make the audio perfect.

While I wouldn't call Marvel vs. Capcom the most balanced fighting game in the world, it makes up for its shortcomings by simply being a whole lot of fun. After pumping out inferior vs. games for a few years now, Capcom has finally gotten it right. Marvel vs. Capcom is everything you'd expect from an over-the-top, ultra-flashy fighter, and then some. But do yourself a favor and pick up a few joysticks instead of punishing yourself with the inferior standard pad. The joysticks are definitely worth the extra money, and really give you the feeling of having the arcade machine in your home.

By Jeff Gerstmann, GameSpot, Posted Apr 2, 1999 11:23 am PT

You know what they say: Another year, another new fighting game set in the Dragon Ball Z universe. Unfortunately, there's very little about Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team that's actually new. The introduction of team battles may appeal to those who can round up some friends to play with, but it isn't enough to keep this familiar fighting system from feeling stale, and the story mode recycles the same tired material that's been used for game after game in the series. Avid Dragon Ball Z fans who are eager to take Goku, Vegeta, and the rest of the gang on the go may appreciate the fact that this is the first entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi series to come to the PSP, but most others won't find much to get excited about here.

As in prior Budokai Tenkaichi games, Tenkaichi Tag Team's battles give you a behind-the-back perspective on your fighter and let you dash and soar in all directions around a three-dimensional arena, which is liberating. An automatic lock-on feature makes navigation easy; you press up or down on the thumbstick to fly straight toward or away from your currently targeted enemy, and you can circle around him or her by pressing left or right. Flying up or down independent of your target's position is done with the D pad. The warriors of Dragon Ball Z routinely hit their opponents with enough force to send them soaring back hundreds of feet, and wielding that kind of power is intoxicating for a little while. But the shallowness and repetition of the combat soon becomes clear, and the initial excitement wears off quickly.

At first glance, you might think there's a good amount of depth to the fighting system. The training section you can access from the main menu has dozens of entries about full-power smashes, vanishing attacks, ultimate supers, chain burst mode, and all sorts of other things. Unfortunately, all you get in this section are little blurbs of text about each item. Without the opportunity to see these things in action to get some context for what they mean, it's difficult to make sense of statements like, "When you receive a Rush immediately after entering a Discernment stance, you will automatically counter with a Snap Instant Transport Attack and a Body Strike thereafter." A hands-on tutorial mode that guided you through these actions step-by-step would have made it all seem a lot less mystifying.

But once you decide to jump into battle, it quickly becomes apparent that you don't actually need to spend much time worrying about snap instant transport attacks, anyway. You can perform close-up melee attacks or fire off long-distance ki blasts, reflect your opponents' offensives with a well-timed tap of the block button, and dash around the environment in the blink of an eye. Holding the L button charges up your ki, and flashy and devastating super attacks like Goku's kamehameha and Vegeta's galick gun, which consume ki, are all done with simple button inputs. This accessibility makes it easy for anyone to jump into battle as his or her favorite Dragon Ball Z characters and immediately start dishing out heaps of punishment. (AI-controlled opponents do their part by putting up little resistance and giving you plenty of opportunities to hit them with everything you've got.) But it also means that one battle feels very much like another, and the action quickly loses its appeal. Because there's little difference in how the characters handle, the 70-character roster also doesn't lend the game much variety or replay value.

The big new feature in this outing is the introduction of team battles. In addition to one-on-one matches, characters can team up for two-on-one or two-on-two fights. Having two opponents to deal with flying around at once makes the action a bit more exciting, and when playing with up to three friends using the ad hoc multiplayer option, the ability to coordinate with a teammate to defeat your opponents more effectively gives the battles a bit of a tactical feel. For instance, super attacks are made more powerful if both team members hit the same opponent with super attacks simultaneously. It's just too bad that this new feature isn't given a real chance to shine with a fresh new fighting system; instead, it is tacked on to the same well-worn combat model that Tenkaichi fans know all too well.

The primary single-player mode is called Dragon Walker. In this story mode, you view a map from an overhead perspective and fly a cute little representation of your current character from place to place to complete missions, which typically involve clicking through some text and then winning a fight or two. The storytelling is tepid and treads the same familiar territory that Dragon Ball games have covered time and time again. It's hard to imagine even the most fanatical of Dragon Ball fans getting excited at the prospect of once again fighting their way through the Saiyan Saga, the Frieza Saga, the Majin Buu Saga, and the rest, particularly given the lackluster way in which they're presented here. In addition to the Dragon Walker mode, whether playing solo or multiplayer, you can jump into free battles using any characters you've unlocked. And either alone or with a friend, you can try a survival mode, which sends one enemy team after another at you, or fight predetermined teams in a mode called Battle 100. Points earned across these modes can be spent in a shop on items you can equip to increase a character's attack or defense, reduce the ki cost of certain actions, and impart other bonuses.

The cel-shaded characters are colorful, detailed, and animate very smoothly, and super attacks frequently fill the screen with massive beams of energy, keeping the visuals exciting even after the gameplay has grown tired. But the environments are distinctly less detailed than the fighters who inhabit them, creating a strange disconnect between the characters and their surroundings. And the camera often can't keep up with the action, leaving you momentarily with no sense of where your enemies are or what impending danger might be heading your way. The voice acting has the goofy, exaggerated quality you'd expect to hear from spiky-haired characters having heated exchanges about power levels and dominating the universe. But the sounds of battle quickly become grating, thanks particularly to a high-pitched whistling noise you hear whenever a character gets sent hurtling backward through the air, which happens all the time.

Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team is just another DBZ fighting game, and makes little effort to distinguish itself from its predecessors. Team-based multiplayer combat is a good addition, but it's tacked on to the same old combat model the series has dished out time and time again, and there are many far better multiplayer fighting games on the PSP. Tenkaichi Tag Team hints at depth and variety but actually fails to offer much of either, and although it's fun to wield the tremendous power of these characters for a short while, the repetitive and familiar nature of the combat makes this a game for only the most devoted Dragon Ball fans.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Review

Mortal Kombat is a survivor. Back in the early '90s, the fighting series started out in arcades as one of the first viable alternatives to the juggernaut that was Capcom's Street Fighter II. The original game had a distinctly gritty feel that aimed for photo-realism mixed with fantastic scenes of unprecedented gore. Over the years, it became a gigantic mythos, spawning movies, action figures, comic books, cartoons, and even a live-action TV show. But even though the series expanded outside the video game realm, the core product's quality waned. Many people still regard Mortal Kombat II as the pinnacle of the series, though Mortal Kombat 3's faster gameplay and pumped-up combo system certainly added a lot to the series. By the time Mortal Kombat 4 came around, though, the arcade market wasn't in particularly good shape, and the new game's lackluster cookie-cutter gameplay and unimpressive 3D graphics didn't win it many fans. Some attempts were made to spin off characters from the series into their own games, resulting in a decent game based on Sub-Zero and an absolute low point for the series in a game based on Jax. Given the series' somewhat recent failures, it isn't difficult to assume that the latest Mortal Kombat would be another disappointing 3D fighter with a layer of blood splashed on top. But, surprisingly enough, that's far from true.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance attempts to reinvent the series from the ground up. The subtitle refers to a pact between the series' two most evil playable characters, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. The duo quickly take over the role of "evil masterminds" and set about on their deadly plan to take over the world. There's definitely more to it than that, though, and the storyline portions of the game are passable, but the exact specifics are better left to FAQ authors and the hardest of the series' hard-core fanbase. It suffices to say that a group of fighters, some good and some evil, have gotten together to duke it out to the death, and the safety of the entire Earth realm is at stake.

While every MK fan will be quick to think of at least one old Mortal Kombat character that should have been included in Deadly Alliance's roster, the characters are a good mix of old and new faces. Returning characters include Johnny Cage, Kano, Sonya, Jax, Cyrax, Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, Raiden, Kitana, Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, and Reptile. For the most part, the new characters fit in to the universe really well. Frost, a sort of female version of Sub-Zero, is probably the strongest addition. Kenshi is a blind tai chi master who uses telekinetic powers, including Ermac's telekinetic slam from Ultimate MK3. Li Mei is a female fighter who seems as though she was taken directly out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Mavado has the hook swords of MK3's Kabal and grappling ropes that let him move around the arena quickly. Drahmin is a decomposing demon that attracts flies wherever he goes. Hsu Hao is involved in Kano's neck of the Mortal Kombat universe, and he looks like some sort of zombie cop with a radar display--which is actually his cybernetic heart--implanted in his chest. Nitara is a winged female vampire. Bo Rai Cho is a fat drunken master who can puke on command--his vomit acts like Sub-Zero's ground ice from Mortal Kombat II, causing foes to slip around uncontrollably.

The fighting system has been given a pretty extreme overhaul, to the point where you might initially think this game has little in common with previous Mortal Kombat games. But over time, it gets easier and easier to see the ties to previous installments in the series. Mortal Kombat 4 introduced weapons, and Deadly Alliance takes this concept one step further: Each character has two unarmed fighting stances and one weapon stance. You can cycle from stance to stance at the touch of a button, and the game's longer combos actually have style changes built right into them. Most of the game's fighting stances are actually from real martial arts, some of them very obscure, which is a cool little touch.

Meanwhile, the game ditches the uppercut move that has been one of the series' hallmarks since its inception. The combo system instead incorporates uppercut-style launchers into the fighters' attacks. Some fighters have multiple launchers, but everyone has at least one launcher and a string of moves that will lead up to that launcher. This lets you accomplish combos that are highly reminiscent of those of Mortal Kombat 4. You can combo up to a launcher, juggle by repeating the launcher, and finish it by connecting with a special move before the victim hits the ground. While the game's combo system focuses on the same sort of dial-a-combo gameplay that's been seen in the Tekken and Capcom Versus series for years, it does it in a way that gives the gameplay a distinct Mortal Kombat style, with plenty of blood and groaning thrown in to make things look exaggerated and painful. But the game is also strong enough on its own to appeal to people who haven't enjoyed previous games in the series.

Adding to the odd twists that longtime fans of the series will have to get used to is the drastically changed moves list. Characters haven't been entirely redesigned from the ground up or anything--Scorpion still has his spear, Sub-Zero shoots ice, Kung Lao throws his hat, and so on--but many other signature moves have been changed or removed. For instance, Scorpion can't teleport, Sub-Zero's slide and Raiden's torpedo have been replaced by more generic-looking shoulder charges, and Reptile can't even turn invisible. Also, some characters have more special moves than others. This fact doesn't ever make the game feel unbalanced, though, as the focus is weighted toward the combo system rather than centering on the relatively small number of special moves in the game.

The fighting dream match carries on in Capcom vs. SNK 2, an arcade port of the sequel to last year's fighting game that did the unthinkable--it brought together many of the most popular characters from Capcom's and SNK's fighting games. For fans of one company's games or the other's, this was about as outrageous as if Coke and Pepsi were to join forces to make a brand-new cola, or if Sega were to start developing games for Nintendo. Wait, scratch that one. About a year after the release of Capcom vs. SNK, the sense of shock may be gone, but it's still a solid 2D fighting game. The sequel--currently available only in Japan for the Dreamcast, although a PlayStation 2 version is on its way to these shores--is similar. Like most of Capcom's fighting games, it's an incremental enhancement of its predecessor that introduces some welcome new features but just barely enough of them.

Capcom vs. SNK 2 adds some new characters, moves, game mechanics, backgrounds, and music. There's a lot of the same graphics, sounds, and gameplay. The changes in the game will have a more significant impact depending on how serious you are about your 2D fighters. The new additions make the game technically superior to the first, but not necessarily better enough to merit purchase if you already have the first one--let alone the half-baked Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, an intermediate rerelease of the first game with a couple of throwaway characters added and all the hidden characters already unlocked.

Depending on how you count, Capcom vs. SNK 2 adds about half a dozen new characters to the original. There are close to 40 different characters available in the game, though of course not all of them are completely unique. Some of the most exciting new additions to the roster include Eagle, the British stick fighter who dates all the way back to the original Street Fighter game, and Haohmaru, the cocky sword-wielding samurai from SNK's Samurai Shodown series, whose katana would presumably give him an unfair advantage. Fortunately, other characters have no problem deflecting Haohmaru's long, slow slashes with their forearms. Others notable additions include the kung-fu fighter Yun, from Street Fighter III, and Rock Howard, the bastard son of Geese Howard who first appeared in SNK's Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves. Some of the other new characters, such as the over-the-hill martial artist Ryuhaku Todo, from SNK's Art of Fighting, and Maki, a rip-off of SNK's Mai Shiranui who appeared in the sequel to Final Fight, are surprising additions to the lineup, but not necessarily good ones. Capcom and SNK fans alike will probably find that they can think of a few equally rare characters who they would have rather seen in the game.

The original Capcom vs. SNK let you unlock an additional version of each character who sported a different arsenal of special moves. Capcom vs. SNK 2 basically merges these "EX" characters with their standard counterparts, making for characters who for the most part have more moves and more options and are therefore generally more interesting to play. Capcom vs. SNK 2 also shows that its designers are being rather wishy-washy in deciding just how many attack buttons players want to be able to use. The Street Fighter series famously used the six-button layout of three punches and three kicks; on the other hand, Neo Geo games always used just four buttons, and the original Capcom vs. SNK took this streamlined approach. But the sequel opts for Capcom's old style, all of a sudden forcing you to use more buttons on your controller. This may be a welcome change if you prefer the six-button style of the Street Fighter series, but it's also a serious pain if you're stuck using a standard Dreamcast pad, with its four face buttons and flaky shoulder buttons. There's no option to use the previous game's four-button layout, so in any event, you'll just have to get used to using six buttons again.

Not content with the wide acclaim that the Dreamcast version received when it was released earlier this year, Tecmo has added even more new features to its flagship fighting game, Dead or Alive 2. The game, now titled Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, adds new costumes, stages, and voices to the mix, and for the most part the game has retained its extremely smooth look.

The original Dead or Alive was powered by Sega's Model 2 arcade hardware, and it played quite a bit like Virtua Fighter 2 with the addition of special danger zones that delivered various new effects. DOA2 breaks out of the Virtua Fighter mold: It has full 3D movement, a rather necessary countering system, and overall it's a more interesting game.

DOA2 offers a variety of mostly standard modes, from the regular story mode, to versus, tag-team-battle, training, and survival. The tag-team-battle mode is pretty exciting, because DOA2's tags occur almost instantaneously. This makes it easy to start a juggle combo and keep the juggle going. Unlike Tekken Tag Tournament, DOA2's tag-team battles are down to the last man, so one-on-two fights can and do occur. The story mode consists of one-round fights and hilariously meaningless prefight exchanges between characters. The horrific English voice work only amplifies the humor.

While DOA2's fighting leans toward the button-mashing side of things, there's plenty of depth to be found, thanks in part to the countering system, which makes countering moves as easy as hitting back, and to the "free" button, which lets you walk around the stage in full 3D. This occasionally leads to counter syndrome, where both players run at each other and immediately counter over and over again, hoping to catch the other player off guard. It looks incredibly silly. Still, regardless of your methods, DOA2 is a fun multiplayer game, and the four-player option in tag-team-battle mode is especially exciting.

DOA2: Hardcore looks simply amazing. The animation is smooth, but the character models are what really stand out. The fighters all look extremely smooth. Little things like clothes, hair, and tassels move appropriately, almost never clipping into the characters' bodies. And, of course, the series' trademark gimmick - large, bouncing breasts - is as prevalent as ever. The soundtrack is a little annoying. While the fighting sounds are great, the music - mostly a collection of fairly generic and slightly annoying guitar tracks - fails to impress. The other piece of audio, newly added for this "hardcore" edition, is English speech. While you can reset the speech to Japanese and turn on subtitles, the game defaults to some of the worst voice work in recent memory. The delivery is off, the script is absolutely lame, and overall it makes the game laughable.

Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore is a pretty good fighting game. The fighting system is fast and fun, though not the deepest system in town. Still, the pretty graphics make it a good showpiece (though, to be honest, it doesn't look that much different from the Dreamcast release), and the game has enough options to make it a worthwhile purchase for fight-hungry PS2 owners.